A new villain introduced here wasn't a bad guy to start the episode - just a regular guy, a janitor working in a warehouse. In fact, a security cop refers to him as "wimpy Rudy Jones." Rudy's nasty friend, however, gets the janitor to help him steal two drums of toxic waste- type material and Rudy, in the getaway, gets drenched with the stuff. He then turns into some reddish-purple-colored creature who is thrown from the trunk while the driver races off.
The toxic goo turns Rudy into "The Parasite," a creature who gets stronger when he touches other people. When he grabs them, he has the power now to hear their thoughts and knows what they know. He "feeds" off them, hence the "parasite" label. The first victim is a female cop. He knocks her out, answers the police radio knowing just what to say to imitate her voice perfectly and then drives off. Soon, he goes after the other thief, the mean guy who abandoned him. He clues him in (and us at the same time) on what's happened to him with this physical-mental change in his body. While he's in the middle of punishing that guy, Superman intervenes....and the fun really starts as "Rudy" grabs Superman and transforms the latter's power into him.
Rudy successfully handles Superman and flies off proclaiming to be "the new Superman in town." That scene was very cool, as is the rest of the episode as good ole Rudy - the "thing" as some news anchor calls him on TV - terrorizes the city of Metropolis. The worst is yet to come because since he now has Superman's thoughts, meaning he knows Clark Kent is Superman.
Without divulging how this dilemma is faced, suffice to say the whole episode was very good, the second-best I've seen so far in the first six shows. Not only was Rudy interesting - and had some funny dialog a couple of times - but the artwork in here was spectacular. This was the best color and drawings I've seen thus far.
